<p>Couldn’t SB let them know <em>now</em> that she isn’t accepting their offer? BTW: Could she call her first album ‘SongBird’ so we all know to buy it?</p>
<p>Kinderny – Did you like ‘light in the box’? Their site comes up when I look for clothes but I wasn’t sure about their quality. That AK dress was a ‘score!’ indeed!</p>
<p>My son spent a few hours at the mall yesterday with his GF and her mother while GF tried on prom dresses. Not really sure why son went at all since he said he spent his time at the Best Buy mobile store looking at cell phones. I had no idea that the dress shopping started this early. I don’t think my daughter started looking until April. </p>
<p>I truly don’t like the financial aid process. We got the package from one college that son likes quite a bit and it has too many loans and not enough grants. <em>sigh</em>.</p>
<p>FlMathMom - agree that we should focus on enjoying this time together. We did have a late night run to the Cold Stone Creamery the other night thanks to one of D’s small accomplishments - we were running to the car in the icy cold wind, holding onto our ice cream cups I am the one running out of patience in this limbo state - but am trying not to convey this to her.</p>
<p>D is at an overnight. No contact with her since she left - which is fine, since I didn’t really expect much. I do see though that she’s been on facebook, communicating with some friends. Got to get used to this I guess - sort of on the outside looking in - this is how it’s going to be next year!! I don’t like this disconnected feeling - I miss her!</p>
<p>We have talked about prom dress shopping. D is not much into dresses - but a few catalogs came home and we looked through them. I suggested that I could take her and a friend out one night this week - just to look. She bought a short dress for junior prom last year and stayed under a 100$. Bought at the very last minute! I am hoping to avoid that last minute rush this year but who knows!</p>
<p>Ds prom is very early this year, March 19th. As of right now, she is not going so we don’t have to do the prom dress shopping. Kinda sad about that but I made her go last year and this year I am not going to do that. Last year I spent $200 on her dress. We went to a store where you register your dress so no one at your school can get the same dress.</p>
<p>Novelisto (and anyone else looking for prom/formal wear)- yes we were very pleased with the price, service and quality for light in the box. Their sizing is a tiny bit funky- according to measurements D should have ordered a size 6 US but we knew that she is always a size 2-4. So we ordered the 4 and it fits perfectly, except a little long. Liked the option (for a surcharge) to make dress to order, which we contemplated to make sure the neckline was not too low. (All told we were very happy except for a little liberal guilt as we wondered if it is one of those awful sweatshops.)</p>
<p>A couple of things caught my attention reading this AM.</p>
<p>I am torn about the scholarships as well. I know that if my son knew his status at all his schools and what the cost was going to be now he would chose and we could notify the other schools ASAP. However, the system does not encourage that at all-in fact it encourages for many kids multiple applications to schools in the hope that perhaps he can get more aid from a school he really wants to go to by leveraging one offer against another. If he knew for certain he wasn’t going to attend a school and that scholarship offer was not going to get redistributed like the case mentioned I think he would withdraw it-but I don’t understand the audition process and if that might be a very bad idea.</p>
<p>We had a girl at his HS accepted EA to a school a lot of kids applied to and were deferred and he told me there was a rather ugly scene where a girl who was deferred was yelling at the girl accepted because everyone “knew” she didn’t want to go to that school so she was taking “her spot”. It makes me happy he never got his act together in time to apply anywhere EA. :)</p>
<p>I also relate to the kids being born in the wrong time. My son will often tell me how he should have been born earlier in history. He finds the current period too fast, too electronic, too impersonal, and too crude. Then he goes off to check his Facebook and answer his texts before watching a TV show like Jersey Shore on the DVR!</p>
<p>D is all over the place with this stuff - can’t give up a spot here but hopes to get in there, merit aid doesn’t match her school preferences, etc., etc. I can just see that fight among the girls, and I feel for both of them (but of course wish they hadn’t gone public with it - how awful). Maybe someday this current system will crash and someone will invent a better one.</p>
<p>For medical residencies, you list your preferences, they decide who they like, and on one day of the year everyone hears where the two axes intersect. And the student’s opinions trump - you get in at the highest one on YOUR list that liked you. Horrible stress - but it certainly feels fair in the long run. No money issues, though.</p>
<p>D is SO anachronistic - we just can’t pick which past era she’d prefer! She’s hovering in the '60s lately.</p>
<p>Pepper - I absolutely agree that ‘the system’ encourages most students to cast a wide net and keep many options open while you must wait for merit, fin-aid, etc, to play out. Blujr simply had an exception where he knew a school was off the table based on another acceptance so he acted on closing that loop. If he had any thought that it might be in play, he absolutely would have waited to see how the rest of the merit aid may have played out. I didn’t intend to say it was wrong at all to keep options open…it’s smart!! For him, it was the right thing to do, and honestly I could see the virtual weight lifting off him as he’s one step closer to being quite settled. I consider that a luxury to be honest.</p>
<p>You are right, there can be really hard feelings with students feeling one has ‘taken’ a place, or even by applying to schools they have little intention on going to can really upset classmates who feel this may diminish their chances at the same university. I’m not convinced that schools have ‘quotas’ of how many students they will take from each school. Some may, some may not. It is every students right to apply wherever they want. I have to assume my kids will get a fair shake and find a school they love.</p>
<p>I started to reply last night but was on my iphone and gave up. When I responded this morning I forgot to add that I love FMM’s reminder not to ‘wish this time away’. Thank you so much! I’m guilty as charged at times. Bluejr’s a busy kid right now, and I’m happy for that. Sometimes the best moments come at midnight over popcorn.</p>
<p>BI I understood where you were coming from-no need to clarify that. The shame of this is that it encourages stress, waste, and inefficiency-all circumstances beyond our control. We all are forced to play the game whether we want to or not. I think I have mentioned before that my husband “strongly encouraged” several applications to schools my son does not have any interest in whatsoever-and wouldn’t you know these are the schools he has already heard from and who have made him some very attractive offers-ones that I wish other kids that really wanted to go to those schools were already getting. However, he is waiting on a school that he would love to go to but will probably not get the kind of offer he needs and those offers may well go to kids who will be at the top of that schools applicant pool and will ultimately choose to attend another school-and my son’s chance may have been lost-who knows? All this effort so maybe Dad can “negotiate” some more money at the school my son really wants to go to-seems to me like a dog chasing his tail but you know how it is-he felt it was very important to do it that way and sometimes I just have to step aside.</p>
<p>The hard feelings he has been able to avoid because he just doesn’t discuss this with anyone but a couple of very close friends who keep their mouths shut. Yes, that scene I described was very unfortunate but the screamer is well known as a pain and busybody so the other girl and the kids in general moved on quickly-it only caused a stir for a day or so.</p>
<p>FlMath is very right! We are enjoying a very lazy vacation day and having good chats over coffee. He also on his own announced Engineering is too “limiting” for him and Chemistry is too “general” so he is looking into Math-but that may be too general as well and he thinks he may want to be a Lawyer-please help me! Hey, at least he initiated this discussion instead of me bringing it up-progress! :)</p>
<p>Novelisto, thank you SO MUCH for the links. Sb will be delighted!</p>
<p>She can’t “release” the scholarship now because (as blue talked about in her post) all 6 of her schools are still in play. We have 3 more auditions to do, academic scholarship days at 2 more…the vetting isn’t complete. And sb is nothing if not methodical! (Hmm, wonder where she gets that!)</p>
<p>She wants to do a thorough analysis…compare apples to apples in April, and take her time to make the decision. So even though I’m starting to get a sense of which ones she is “leaning toward” more than the others, she isn’t ready to drop any from the list.</p>
<p>We went suit shopping all day Sunday at the Outlets- Woodbury Commons, north of NYC. Should have just bought the first one S tried on at 10 am that looked incredible, but didn’t want to spend quite that much. Well five hours later… at least I had a coupon that I printed from their vip site. This is for graduation which isn’t until June, but figured better get one while we could since they don’t have a large selection anywhere in 36R. S likes shoes as well, picked up 2 pair. Think he needs a new pair of dress shoes for prom as he has worn them quite a bit, they aren’t the shiny kind and they look a little scruffy.
It was one of those last minute ideas, you really don’t plan a day of shopping with your S. We had lunch, it was fun. It took a full hour to get out of the parking lot, crazy.</p>
<p>Nothing planned for the 2 weeks of spring break. Probably doing nothing this year. All the sports teams go away for week 2, but S doesn’t play spring sports. I sent H & S to Ireland last year for a bonding trip. Best idea ever. Not in the cards for this year. It is going to be a long two weeks. S has made up his mind, but if the one super-super reach deemed him worthy, it might give him pause. For about a sec, he says it’s way too cold. Warmer weather was his top college criteria.</p>
<p>Pepper03 – Your son could look at careers that involve all those things. I’m sure there is room in the legal field for someone with a hard science background – drug companies, space or deep sea engineering firms, patent attorneys, etc. The important thing is to get that first degree…opening whole new worlds.</p>
<p>Pepper03 - I’m a lurker (I don’t have a 2011-er, but I have a 2010 and 2012 so I like to read this thread), but I thought I’d pop in and tell you that in at least one study, math majors got the highest score on the LSAT - [Legal</a> Blog Watch](<a href=“Legal Blog Watch”>Legal Blog Watch), so being a math major doesn’t not rule out law school by a long shot!</p>
<p>MOSB I don’t envy your situation at all-academics on top of auditions-then the resulting different kinds of scholarships involved. My head would be spinning even worse than usual if we had all that on our plate. </p>
<p>Pinot thanks for that info-and Novelisto too. This lawyer option is completely out of left field-and if he really is serious he will need to look long and hard at the undergrad options to leave us some money to help him if he wants law school.</p>
<p>He wants to be a lawyer that does good! I told him prepare to be broke for a long time then-to which he happily replied money will be no problem because he is going to make a fortune with his new book idea. See, no worries here after all. :)</p>
<p>Both my kids are humming right now so I am going to tiptoe around the house and try not to mess anything up!</p>
<p>It’s nice to imagine all those sons in their carefully selected tuxes (with or without “converse” tux shoes!) and daughters in prom dresses (some vintage, others specially purchased in NYC) as they near the end of their high school journey. [And all the non-traditionally dressed (like mine) at their hippy-dippy alternative schools as well!]</p>
<p>I don’t think the kids and parents hanging on to scholarships until they really know a school is off the table should feel any guilt at all. Up until this point, I think we get so used to the colleges having all the power in this odd educational relationship, that it seems there is something amiss when suddenly our kids have a bit of power, as teeny as it is in the great scheme of things. It is still the colleges that have set up the whole game and there’s no need to feel guilty for playing it as well as one can. (And I say that as a very unprepared player myself!)</p>
<p>This weekend DS worked on scholarship applications. Today we got a big envelope from The College of New Jersey telling DS that he was admitted. Yesterday he spent the day at another college for accepted students day. This afternoon son states “I am just so tired of the word college right now!” </p>
<p>I unintentionally purchased S1’s first dorm gear this morning while out running unrelated errands. I picked up a tempurpedic foam mattress topper & a couple pillows. It hit me like a ton of bricks at checkout, that we are in countdown mode. :eek: </p>
<p>I went back out again, looking for linens…but only walked away with miscellaneous stuff - a couple laundry bags, a shower caddy, and a desktop/wall mount 2-cube storage unit with fabric drawers. I decided I had better have his input on a comforter, sheet set and bath towels…or anything else, for that matter…so I wisely called it quits. </p>
<p>This thing is coming like a freight train, folks.</p>
<p>I’m trying to catch up after a few days away. My husband, D2 and I spent a few days enjoying the sunshine in Florida. Last month, when the winter doldrums hit, I convinced my husband that we should plan a President’s Weekend getaway. We got really lucky with beautiful weather and on-time flights. We got home hours before the snow started, and my daughter even got a snow day today for recuperation. As FMM and Aparental unit suggested, we’re trying to savor this last year before our daughter leaves home.</p>
<p>Congrats to Kathiep, BI, Cooker and Momofzach on the latest acceptances.</p>
<p>Good luck to those with upcoming auditions.</p>
<p>Last fall I picked up a mattress cover, egg crate topper, 2 sets of cotton jersey sheets (in neutral color) and fleece blnket…when Target was red tagging things.
There are a few things we know kiddo wants/needs. Yet our issue will be shipping etc since we arent planning on driving across the country…
A few good sale items/strategic easy pack etc are still doable…</p>
<p>I agree this is coming fast…our student will be gone most of summer…will be home 2 weeks and then has t be at school/fresh orient…
Already spring semester is flying…AP exams are looming…and kiddo’s room will be empty, orderly and silent all too soon
sniff/sigh</p>
I am the one running out of patience in this limbo state - but am trying not to convey this to her.</p>